Hair styling products are intended for helping to create individual hair styles and for temporarily holding them in place for a period of time. Hair styling wax products and styling cream products play an important role among styling products. They particularly find application in putting short to medium length hair in a fashionable hairstyle and impart hold, texture, and luster as well as stabilize, condition, and fix the hairstyle. They provide the hairstyle with shape and luster and frequently with a wet-look appearance. Application of wax containing hair styling products is usually based on the following principles. Solid products are removed with the fingers from suitable containers. Sprayable or foamable wax products are sprayed onto the hand. Creamy products can be squeezed out of a tube onto the hand. The product is distributed on the surface of the hand and the waxy ingredients are melted or at least considerably softened by the heat of the hand in combination with the shear energy of rubbing. It is possible to work the otherwise too hard wax into the hair because of this softening or melting. The wax is worked into the hair in a softened or more or less liquid state. Then it cools and again reaches its original solid or semi-solid consistency. It hardens and the hairdo obtained has stability and hold and frequently a wet-look appearance. Not all waxy materials are equally well suited for being used in hair styling wax products because of manifold requirements. The product should have a homogeneous consistency and should not crumble during application. The wax should not be too hard in order to be distributable on hand and hair but not too soft in order to provide enough hold and texture. It should provide gloss on hair but not form visible crumbs or visible white residues on the hair. One of the best suited waxes is carnauba wax. It is hard enough to give good hold and texture but can be softened to be good distributable especially when combined with softer waxes or oils. One disadvantage of carnauba wax is its unpleasant yellowish color. Waxes with a whiter color, e.g., hydrocarbon waxes are known but these waxes usually do not combine all of the performance benefits of carnauba wax.
It is a special challenge to formulate a hair styling wax product with improved whiteness or color brightness and which has at least similar or even better performance benefits as wax products containing carnauba wax, especially in view of product homogenity, distributability in the hand and on the hair, good hair texture, hair hold, hair shine and/or wet-look. It is an object of the present invention to provide hair wax products, which improve the hold, texture, and the shine of the hairstyle. Improving hair texture means to impart desirable surface characteristics to hair or to the hairdo. At the same time the product mass should have a pleasant, white appearance and be easily and satisfactorily processed and worked into the scalp hair without crumbling or forming visible residues and with an acceptable, not too high loading of the hair and with a smoother feel of the product itself and of the hair after application of the product.